


When we have peace

by apocrypha73



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 09:03:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14589612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocrypha73/pseuds/apocrypha73
Summary: After the Battle of Endor, Kallus and Zeb enjoy the celebration.





	When we have peace

**Author's Note:**

> My eternal thanks to [redmacallan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redmacallan/) for lending their amazing beta skills to this.

Zeb could barely believe they had survived another battle.

But not just  _ any _ battle. This had been The Battle, the one to end them all ― hopefully. People were saying the Emperor and Darth Vader had died today, on that Death Star, and if those news were confirmed, it would mean the end of the Galactic Empire. Finally.

After fighting this long and excruciating war for half his life, the mere idea of peace was enough to make Zeb dizzy.

He tightened his arm around Alex’s shoulders and the man snuggled comfortably against his side. They were sitting on a tree root, slightly apart from the whole celebration, just enjoying the comfort of each other’s presence and reveling in the fact that they were still here, still in one piece, still together.

All around them, the Ewok village in the forest of Endor was one massive, joyful party. There was music and singing, drinks, food they hadn’t dared to touch after one single look at the stormtrooper helmets being used as percussion. And most of all, laughter. Loud, heartfelt, untamed laughter. Pilots and pathfinders were trading stories of the battle, complimenting each other on a job well done. Zeb’s gaze found Rex a few meters away, chatting with a young human soldier with tanned skin and a little goatee that reminded him a bit of Kanan. Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a gorgeous pilot lady with curly black hair, who saluted Rex respectfully and took the young soldier by the arm. After a brief exchange of words, the clone dismissed the couple with a knowing grin, and it brought a little smile to Zeb’s lips.

There was life, and love, and hope again. They had done it.

“I think that’s the Skywalker kid everyone’s talking about,” Alex said, taking him out of his reverie.

“Who?”

“That one,” his lover answered, pointing discreetly to a young man all dressed in black who was standing at the edge of the celebration, facing the forest. The man was then approached by a woman Zeb recognized as the princess of Alderaan, and she brought him back to the party.

“He’s the one who got the Emperor  _ and _ Vader?” he asked incredulously.

“Apparently so,” Kallus confirmed.

Zeb whistled in admiration. “That kid can’t be older than Ezra!”

“I know, right?” Alex agreed. “But then again, Ezra did manage to get one up on Thrawn at the age of eighteen, so it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. Children grow up fast in times of war, I guess.”

The Lasat nodded absently, the familiar pang of longing and regret setting down on him like every time he remembered Ezra. It had been years now, but it still hurt not to know what had happened to the kid. He wondered, not for the first time, if they would ever see him again.

Alex shifted under his arm, hugging Zeb’s waist. “Are you all right?” he said, worry and understanding on his face.

“I’m fine, really,” Zeb answered. “It’s just… you know.”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Alex replied softly, as he straightened up to kiss Zeb on the cheek. He pressed close against the Lasat, no words needed, and Zeb’s somber mood melted away.

He drove his attention back to the party. Lots of familiar faces there, like Wedge hugging people left and right as if he was being paid for it. Zeb even caught a glimpse of Lando Calrissian, of all people. How the Alliance had managed to convince that scoundrel to get involved in something like this, Zeb had no idea, but he’d like to have half of those persuasion skills.

Turning his head to the other side, he saw Sabine dancing with some Ewoks and promptly putting everyone to shame with her moves. A little further from that, Hera was standing on a quiet spot at the edge of the treeline, holding in her hand a holocomm that was projecting a blue image of Jacen. The boy was on Ryloth, spending some quality time with his grandpa while his mommy helped save the galaxy, and at that precise moment he appeared to be giving Hera a very vivid report of his activities on her home planet, complete with wild gesticulating and some jumping around. Zeb could only see half of her face from where he was, but her radiant smile said it all.

He found himself smiling along, almost involuntarily. Damn, he missed that little kid. He missed Lothal, too. He couldn’t wait to go back home.

A home that nobody would take away from them now. The Empire was gone. They were free to live their lives however they wanted.

Holy shit,  _ they were free to live their lives however they wanted _ .

No more war. No more fear. No more hiding.

And Zeb knew exactly how he wanted to live his life. He’d known for some time now, he’d just never dared to imagine he’d have a chance. But all of a sudden, there were chances everywhere. For everyone. The whole future was nothing but chances. It was amazing and scary at the same time, and it filled him with a kind of joy that bordered on euphoria.

“Hey, would you like to get out of here?” he asked Alex.

The sudden need to be alone with him, away from the noise and the crowd, was overwhelming. Not because he was tired of the party, not really. He was just happy. So purely, intensely happy, that he needed to share it with the person he loved most.

He was in the mood to celebrate all right, he simply had a very different kind of celebration in mind.

Kallus lifted his head from Zeb’s shoulder, giving him his trademark devilish smirk — which, by the way, didn’t help —, and the Lasat knew he’d picked up his meaning on the fly.

“Anywhere in particular?” Alex said seductively.

Zeb smiled and leaned forward with the excuse of making himself heard over the noise of the party, speaking close enough to Kallus’s ear that his breath would caress the sensitive skin. “Ever had your dick sucked on the top of a tree?” 

The reaction was immediate. The hair on Kallus’s neck stood up and the man’s pupils dilated, his breathing becoming faster and more shallow. It didn’t matter that they’d been together for years now, the signs of Alex’s desire for him never failed to make Zeb’s blood rush through his veins.

Before Kallus, Zeb hadn’t really felt attractive for quite a long time. Among his people he was considered very handsome, but ever since the destruction of Lasan he’d spent most of his time in the company of other species, mostly humans. And for them, he was just too alien. Most of them didn’t even consider him a potential partner.

But everything was different with Alex. Alex looked at him like he was some kind of sex god or something, like he was  _ beautiful _ . Zeb had never been one for vanity, but damn if it didn’t feel nice to be appreciated like that. To be wanted like that.

And the feeling was definitely mutual.

“Is it any different than doing it on the ground?” Kallus replied in a whisper.

“I dunno. Shall we find out?”

 

 

* * *

  
  


They were lying side by side watching the stars — the portions of sky they could see through the branches of the tree —, limbs heavy and minds still foggy with pleasure. It was nice up there, the air not so warm and humid as on the ground, and the sounds of the party were distant and subdued, almost completely drowned by their own labored breathing.

They had found an empty platform at the edge of the village, a watcher post of some sort, so enclosed by the foliage it was completely hidden from view of the nearby homes. Not that there was anyone in those homes anyway, everybody was at the party. But still, it was nice to have that sense of privacy. Like their own safe haven.

“There’s so many of them,” Zeb said groggily, looking up.

“Hmm?” Alex mumbled, voice hoarse, and Zeb felt a tiny spark of electricity at the memory of how he’d strained his vocal chords just a few minutes ago. “So many what?”

“Stars,” the Lasat clarified. “You don’t see a sky like this in other worlds.”

“That’s because there’s too much artificial light in those worlds.”

“I know. It’s almost like being in space, kinda. But with trees.”

Alex chuckled softly at that. His hand found Zeb’s and they linked their fingers loosely, as the man turned his head to the side to look at him.

“I love you,” he said in a small, almost frightened voice, making Zeb tear his eyes away from the sky to meet his partner’s gaze. “I know I don’t say it nearly enough, but please never doubt that it’s true. I wouldn’t be who I am now without you. And I’m… Even with the war and everything we’ve been through, these last years have been the happiest of my entire life, Zeb. And it’s all thanks to you.”

“Let’s get married,” Zeb blurted out.

That was  _ so _ not the way he’d intended to propose. But come on, he was only flesh and blood, okay? He couldn’t be expected to hear Alex say those things and keep his cool.

“What?” Kallus replied, eyes huge and mouth open, looking so dismayed that Zeb started to panic.

“Karabast, I had meant to make this a little more romantic,” he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. He turned on his side, facing Kallus. “But yeah, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I didn’t say anything before ‘cause I didn’t want you to think I was only asking out of desperation. You know, like,  _ ‘we’re gonna die anyway, it’s not like I’ll actually have to go through with it’  _ and all that. That’s not what this is. I really wanna spend the rest of my life with you, now that it looks like we’ll have a rest of our lives to spend.”

For some reason, Alex looked like he was about to burst into tears. But not the happy kind of tears, that would have been nice and maybe even expected. No, he looked… scared. And it was starting to freak Zeb out, too.

_ Oh, kriff, I screwed up. He’s got some kind of commitment phobia that I didn’t know about, right? Karabast. I should’ve kept my big mouth shut, we’re so good as we are. We don’t need to make it official. Oh, no, is he gonna break up with me? _

“What… what’s wrong, babe?” Zeb asked very softly, unable to bear the silence any longer. “Is it too soon? We don’t have to talk about it right now, if you don’t want. Or ever. I’m okay with staying like this, we don’t have to…” His words died down when he saw Alex shaking his head, confusing him even more. What was he saying no to?

“That’s not it, Zeb. Not at all,” Kallus said in a strangled voice, and then he practically threw himself in Zeb’s arms, burying his face in the crook of the Lasat’s neck. He was trembling all over.

“Alex, please, talk to me,” Zeb begged him. Kallus’s behavior was making him anxious, his imagination running wild with possible reasons for this. Maybe Kallus was already married. Maybe he had a terminal illness that he’d kept secret. Maybe he’d pledged himself to the spirit of some dead Dathomirian witch in exchange for magical insurance that Zeb would survive the war.

Maybe Zeb would go crazy if he didn’t get an explanation soon.

Kallus took a few, steadying breaths, and adjusted into a more comfortable position in Zeb’s arms. “You know I’ve done terrible things,” he began. “Things I could never hope to atone for, no matter how long I live. And I never faced any consequences for them. If anything, I keep being rewarded instead of punished, like… I have you, and the Rebellion has accepted me, and I haven’t been submitted to trial or imprisonment. I know I have no right to live this life, to have this happiness. That’s why, whenever something good happens, I get this paralyzing fear that I’m going to lose everything I love. That I’m going to lose  _ you _ . Because that’s the only thing that could ever compare to the hurt I’ve caused others.”

He moved his head from Zeb’s shoulder to his bicep, gazing into his eyes. “I keep waiting for a blow that never comes. The happier I am, the bigger that fear grows. And this… The idea of marrying you… It terrifies me. But only because it’s the most amazing thing I could even dream of.”

Zeb considered him in silence for a few moments, letting relief wash over him and undo the anxious knot in his stomach. The Ashla knew he didn’t want to make light of Alex’s fears, but after the sheer terror he’d just been through, all he wanted was to smack his lover in the head for scaring him like that.

“You know, for all your smarts, you can be quite a moron sometimes, love.”

Kallus arched his eyebrows, surprise and confusion so clearly written on his face that Zeb had to restrain himself from laughing. “Excuse me?”

“It doesn’t work like that, Alex. It’s not a zero sum. Sometimes, good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. And hey, just for the record, I don’t mean you are a bad person, okay? At least not anymore. You changed.”

“What choice did I have after discovering the truth?” he said dismissively.

“There’s always a choice,” Zeb insisted. “You could’ve kept lying to yourself and refuse to admit you were wrong. Or you could’ve just bailed out. Hide away somewhere, stay out of the war and tell your conscience that it was enough you weren’t working for the Empire anymore. But instead you chose to risk your neck to help us. You did the bravest thing you could do, and that was enough for me to forgive you.”

Alex seemed to think about it, although he didn’t look very convinced. “But isn’t the Force supposed to be about balance? There is no balance here.”

Zeb sighed. “Okay, maybe, but do you think I deserve to die?”

“What!? No! Of course not, what the hell are you talking about!?”

He caressed Alex’s frown away with the tips of his fingers, then moved to softly run the back of his knuckles over the man’s cheek, pleased to see him relaxing. “You think you deserve to suffer by losing me, but there’s no way I’m leaving you voluntarily, so that’s not gonna happen unless I bite it. So, do you think I deserve to die?”

“Absolutely not! And please don’t say that again, it’s not funny!”

Zeb kissed his brow gently. He didn’t like upsetting Alex like this, but it was important to make him understand. “Never said it was. But my point is, why should the Force care more about setting scores with you than, say, me? What if it’s not your life that the Force is trying to balance, but mine? Don’t ya think I deserve some happiness for all my troubles?”

Kallus blinked a couple of times, a look of puzzlement on his face that was almost comical. “I… I had honestly never considered it like that.”

“Well, maybe you should,” Zeb answered kindly. “As pretty as you are, babe, the galaxy doesn’t turn around you.”

The love in his voice belied the apparent harshness of his words, and Kallus couldn’t help the incredulous snort that escaped him. The man fell quiet for a moment, watching Zeb so intently that the Lasat could practically see the metaphorical gears in his brain turning. And then, abruptly, he started laughing and covered his face with a hand.

“Oh, kriff,” he said, his words muffled. “I’m such an egotistical asshole.”

“A little bit,” Zeb conceded with a mischievous grin, “but you’re  _ my _ egotistical asshole.”

“Why do you even love me?” Alex almost whined, but he was still laughing. He pulled his hand away from his face, looking at his partner with a self-deprecating smile.

“I know, it’s a mystery, right?” Zeb teased. “Anyway, it’s too late to turn back now. We’ve officially decided it’s your job to make me happy.”

“That’s not my job,” Kallus replied softly, threading his fingers in Zeb’s facial hair. “It’s my vocation.”

He kissed Zeb, long and slow and tender, pressing their naked bodies together, and Zeb started to think it wouldn’t take much more to start them on round two.

But there was still something that needed to be settled first.

“So, does this mean your answer to the big question is yes?” he asked when they came up for air.

“Did you seriously consider, even for a moment, that I could answer anything else?”

“Well, to be honest, there was like a couple of seconds there,” Zeb said, making a face.

Kallus arched an eyebrow in mock-chastisement. “Really? And  _ I _ am the moron?” He let out a long-suffering sigh, but he betrayed his own act by smiling lovingly at Zeb. “Of course I’ll marry you, Garazeb Orrelios. It will be my honor.”

His answer gave way to more kisses, and those swiftly turned into a more heated kind of embrace.

The wedding plans would have to wait for later.


End file.
